Manifolding



May 28, 1935. A. A. JOHNSON MANIFOLDING Original Filed May 22, 1951Patented May 28, 1935 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICEI'} MANIFOLDING ArthurA. .lolmson, Bridgeport, Conn, assignmto Autographic Register Company,Hoboken, N. J., a corporation of New Jersey Original application May 22,1931, Serial No. 539,245. Divided and this application Decem ber 29,1933, Serial No. 704,406 r 3 Claims. (01. 282-12) This invention relatesto manifolding, and ent invention and the specific mechanism 'used'more-particularly, to the provision of a pile ofv therewith. 7 stripswith feed-regulating means so arranged, Broadly, the manifoldingregister comprises a that predetermined strips in the superposed pilesubstantially rectangular casing l having a stormay be fed prior to orafter the other strips in the age supply compartment 1 I at oneend and arec- 6. pile. It is a division of my copending application I 0rdcompartment I! at the other end .with a feed Serial No. 539,245, filedMay 22, 1931. mechanism l3 between the two.

In my aforesaid application there is disclosed The supply compartment Hmay be used to an autographic register with special feed and store azig-zag folded pile of superposed strips,

control mechanisms adapted to select, advance, to store a single rollhaving a pile of superposed l0 cut-off and store in a master recordcompartstrips wound thereon, or to store several spindles ment orotherwise dispose of certain sheets from each having a single stripwound thereon, either a set in a pile of superposed strips and to subofthese forms being arranged to be drawn in susequently select, advanceand cut-off the reperposed condition across a platen Min 2. man- 16mainder of the sheets in the one set of forms ne ow Well understood inthis art; The record for disposition usually in a different mannerstorage compartment I2 is indicative of the cut during one operation ofthe feed mechanism.v 's o ge ype lso Well-known in the art.

The success of this entire arrangement is close- The feed mechanism I3comprises a hand ly related to specially formed strips forming crank oractuator I5 having a limited ran the subject matter of the presentdivisional apc te movement between the normal s 20 plication, andintermediate stop l'l connected to suitable Other features andadvantages will hereing rin w h n t us t s gearing in aiterappeanarranged to impart uni-directional rotationto In th drawing feed disksl9 and feed disk shaft 20 during two- Figure 1 i an e e t n of completeregister direction rotation of the crank, said mechanism on a .veryreduced scale. being shown and described in detail in my afore-' Fig. 2is a detail view of the regular feed mech- Said application Serial o. 52 5, filed May anism and of one form of starter device which 1931- e edisks and shaft up n w h t ey may be used to alternately start one partof a are mounted in combination with a pressure roll- 3 t a d th th r ide of a t of h t er flare substantially like that disclosed in the msuperposed pi1e v aforementioned Shoup and Oliver Patent No. Fig. 3 is aside view of the feed and starter 1,396,070, for the disks are d p t p ap l mechanism shown i Fig 2, s 22 of strips 23 and 24, dividedthroughouttheir' Fig. 4 is a plan view of one form of superposed lengthw forms and Preferably y strips, transverselines of severance 25, intractive en- 35 1; 5 is plan View of another fol-moi upergagementbetween the feeddisks l9 and pressure posed strips. roller 2| to advancethem until the feed disks The novel pack or the present invention isenter feed-regulating apertures w ereupon most useful in manifoldingregisters at the presvement of the strips is pp d b cause of the 40 enttime and for this reason it has been so dislook of treotive engagement.1 4o closed. Because machines of this order are most epatent alsodiscloses a u ly opergenerally of the so-called Shoup and Oliver typeable Structure for p in vs artingmovement disclosed, in Patent No.1,396,070, granted Noto the pile of strips. i order to move e pervember8, 1921, the present inventi is tures outof registry with the feed disksand to ciosed as embodied in a register of this general bring t pile otraetive n eme t again. 45 type, but this, should in nowise restrict thepre The structure so far described is standard in cut invention, for itis applicants intent that the nearly every respect and has been used V y8110- novelpack be used in other types of machines, oessfully inmanifolding register installations The register shown in my aforesaid,applicae where it is desired to advance the entire pile of tion SerialNo. 539,245, filed, May 22, 1931,.also strips oneiorm-length at a timeinto a position 50 embraces and describes in vdetail certain imformanual severance of a set of forms along a provernents over said PatentNo. 1,396,070, which tear-oi! straight'edge or for automatic severanceare neither shown nor described in detail here, by a knife controlled bythe hand crank. in an effort to more clearly. show and describe Thistype of mechanism flndsextensive use and the special pile ofstripsprovided by the presperforms very satisfactorilyi'nmany lines ofbusi- 55 ness. However, there is nothing about it which enables selectedstrips in the pile to be advanced prior to the others; as for example,advancement of a top record strip 23 a single form-length for deliveryinto the record storage compartment |2 downwardly through the-regularpath of travel of the pile and then advance the remainder of the stripsin the pile one form-length over the cover 21 of the storage compartmentfor severance there and disposition to the customer, shipping room, orthe like.

Coming now tothe important provisions of the present invention, itshould be particularly noted that the pile of strips 22, which, for thepurpose of illustration, comprises only a top record sheet 23 and twocopy strips 24 with a succession of sheets or forms 23a and 24a andwhich may be of roll type or zig-zag folded type, is especially formedso that the top record strip 23 or other predetermined strips in thepile may be selected by the starter mechanism fully disclosed in mycopending application Serial No. 539,245, filed May 22, 1931, and shownby one illustrative embodiment in Figs. 2 and 3 of the present drawing,and advanced for disposition in one manner and thereafter the balance ofthe strips in the pile are selected and advanced a predetermined lengthfor disposition or disposal in another manner. 7

To this end the present invention provides specially formed starterescape apertures 28 in one or more of the strips, one in each form 23aof the top or record strip 23 alone in the present showing while thecopy strips 24 are left with solid grip sections 29a thereunder.Similarly, the copy strips 24 are provided with starter escape apertures29 while immediately overlying these apertures 29 the top record strip23 is left solid grip sections 28a.

It is the provision of these starter escape apertures 28 and 29overlying solid sections 28a and 29a which makes it possible toautomatically select and advance one or more strips and then otherstrips in the pile to advance them alternately one form length.

Only one form of novel starter mechanism 30, for use with the novel pack22 of the present invention, is disclosed herein and it comprises a cam3| with a primary lobe 3|a on the crank shaft 32 adapted to engage a dog33 on the lower end of the bell crank 34 and move the latter in acounterclockwise direction about a shaft 35 against the tension of thespring 36 until a finger 31 clears a notch 38 on a starter roll carrier39 as the crank I5 is initially pulled away from the normal stop |6toward the intermediate stop l1, whereupon the carrier rotates with thefeed disk shaft 20 in a counterclockwise dinection, as viewed in Fig. 3,until a starter roll 40 thereon moves into the copy strip apertures 29and engages with a starter portion 28a of the record strip 23 to seizethis record strip and impart a small initial forward movement to it,sufiicient to move the feed-regulating apertures 26 out of registry withthe disks #9, whereupon the feed disks and pressure roller are intractive en-- gagement with the record strip and work upon the latterthrough the feed-regulating apertures 26 of the stationary copy stripsto advance this record strip one form-length until the next succeedingfeed-regulating apertures 26 of the record strip move into registry withthe feed disks.

As the crank |5 is moved through the half cycle of its movement intoengagement with the intermediate stop H, the high point of the primarylobe 3|a quickly rides below the dog 33 and the finger 31 rides on theperiphery of the carrier 39 into the secondary notch 4| to preventfurther rotation of the carrier with the feed shaft 20. During thismovement a secondary lobe 3| b on the cam ineffectively kicks asecondary dog 42 on the end of the bell crank 34 about the pivot 43 awayfrom the stop 44 and against the compression spring- 45 until the dogsnaps back into its normal position and the lobe 3|b underlies the bevel46 portion thereof.

Subsequently, the crank I 5 is moved in a counterclockwise direction, asviewed in Figure 1, from the intermediate stop I? back toward the normalstop I6 whereupon the secondary lobe 3|b on the cam 3| moving in acounterclockwise direction engages the dog 42 which is now held againstclockwise movement on the pivot 43 by the stop 44 to kick the bell crank34 in a counterclockwise direction again and releases the finger 3.1from the secondary stop 4| so that another starter roll 41 on thecarrier 39 rotating with the feed shaft 20 moves into engagement withthe starter portions 29a of the copy strips 24 underlying the starterescape aperture 28 in the record strip 23 to seize these copy strips andimpart initial advancing movement thereto, while the record strip 23remains stationary, a sufficient extent for the feed-regulatingapertures 26 of the copy strips to move out of registry with the feeddisks l9 and to move these copy strips into tractive engagement betweenthe feed disks l9 and pressure roller 2| to be advanced thereby as thefeed shaft is rotated by the crank 5 and feed mechanism 3 until theyhave been advanced one form-length and the next succeedingfeed-regulating apertures of the next succeeding forms in the copystrips move into registry with the feed disks.

The secondary lobe 3 |b engages the dog 42 and moves the finger 31 clearof the secondary notch 4| but very briefly and then allows the finger toride on the carrier 39 again into the primary notch 38. The carrier 39and starter rolls '40 and 41 thereon are held against rotation with thefeed shaft 20 by a frictional clutch 43 comprising a collar 49 on theshaft 20 and a spring 50 yieldingly urging the carrier 39 against a faceplate 5|. During final counterclockwise movement of the cam 3| with thecrank I5 and crank shaft 32 the primary lobe 3 la engages the undersideof the dog 33 to ineifectively kick the dog about the pivot 43 away froma stop pin 52 against the compression spring 45 until this lobe clearsthe dog and allows it to snap back into normal position again as shownin Fig. 3 just prior to the crank |5 reaching the normal stop I6.

Thus, only one set of forms in the superposed pile is advanced oneform-length, but, according to the present invention, this is done in adivided manner; viz, predetermined strips (the record strip in thepresent showing) is advanced one form-length for disposal in one manner,as for example, forwardly over the cover 21 for disposal exteriorly ofthe machine or downwardly into the storage compartment l2 with the aidof a switching device disclosed in my aforesaid application forsubstantially permanent storage, and thereafter the balance of one setof forms in the pile of strips is picked up and advanced one form-lengthfor desired distribution exteriorly of the machine. The next succeedingset of forms is then over the platen 4 in position for writing a recordentry and subsequent disposal is effected in like divided manner byagain operating the crank through one full cycle.

Various forms of feeding mechanisms and starter mechanisms may be usedwith the novel pack of the present invention. Also, the starterapertures 28 and 25 and grip sections 28a and 29a may be variouslypositioned and proportioned within the purview ofthe present invention,a modified form being shown in Fig. 4, wherein the starter apertures 53and 54 are spaced wire apart.

Other variations and modifications may be made within the scope of thisinvention and portions of the improvements may be used without others.

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed as new and forwhich it is desired to obtain Letters-Patent, is:-

1. A new article of manufacture comprising a manifolding pack with astrip of original sheets and strips of duplicate sheets, each striphaving feed-regulating apertures in each 0! said sheets which align whensaid sheets are in superposed registered relation, starter escapeapertures in each duplicate sheet underlying starter engaging portionsin the original sheets, and a starter escape aperture in the originalsheet overlying starter engaging portions in the duplicate sheets. 2. Anew article of manufacture comprising a manfolding pack with a strip oforiginal sheets and one or more strips of duplicate sheets, each striphaving teed-regulating apertures in each of said sheets which align whensaid sheets are in superposed registered relation; starter engagingportions on one sheet overlying a starter escape aperture in anothersheet of the pile; and a starter engaging portion in said other sheetunderlying starter escape apertures'in the firstnamed sheet. 3. A newarticle of manufacture comprising a maniiolding pack with a strip oforiginal sheets and one or more strips of duplicate sheets, said sheetsbeing arranged in superposed sets and having aligned teed-regulatingapertures for causing a feed mechanism to be inoperative for advancinguntil a starter device imparts initial movement thereto; and starterengaging portions on one or more sheets and in superposed relation tostarter escape apertures in the other sheet or sheets in a set foreflecting feeding 01 one or more sheets in advance of the other sheetsin the set.

ARTHUR A. JOHNSON.

